Three US hospitals have been forced to temporarily close their doors to “all but the most critical new patients” following a ransomware outbreak.<\/p>\n
“A criminal is limiting our ability to use our computer systems in exchange for an as-yet unknown payment,”\u00a0said DCH Health System<\/a>.<\/p>\n DCH operates the three affected hospitals in Alabama.<\/p>\n One cyber-security expert said the groups using ransomware were becoming increasingly well organised.<\/p>\n Computers at the DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa, Fayette Medical Center and Northport Medical Center were infected with ransomware.<\/p>\n The incident was first reported on 1 October.<\/p>\n “We will continue to divert any new admissions, other than those that are critical, to other facilities,” DCH said in its statement.<\/p>\n Local ambulances have been asked to take patients to other local hospitals instead, where possible.<\/p>\n Outpatients with appointments at any of the three hospitals were advised to call before attending them.<\/p>\n However, elective procedures and surgery already scheduled for 2 October were planned to go ahead.<\/p>\n It is not yet known what group or individual launched the ransomware.<\/p>\n Separately, seven hospitals in Australia have also reported disruptive ransomware infections.<\/p>\n “Some elective surgery and appointments have been cancelled,”\u00a0said Barwon Health<\/a>, one hospital operator affected by the incident.<\/p>\n The Government of Victoria said<\/a>\u00a0the seven hospitals were located in Gippsland and south-west Victoria.<\/p>\n Multiple computer systems have had to be disconnected as a result, which has meant some patient record, booking and management services have been shut down.<\/p>\n This could affect efforts to contact patients and schedule appointments, the Government of Victoria said: “Where practical, hospitals are reverting to manual systems to maintain their services.”<\/p>\n In cases where patient histories, charts, images and other information has been made unavailable, it may be necessary to reschedule some appointments, the authority added.<\/p>\n Daniel Andrews, Premier of Victoria,\u00a0told local media<\/a>\u00a0it could take “weeks” before the problems were fixed.<\/p>\n The Victorian Government Cyber Incident Response Service has dealt with more than 600 cyber-attacks since July 2018.<\/p>\n “Unfortunately the groups breaking into individual computers at organisations are becoming rapidly better at obtaining access across networks, and then causing chaos with a goal to being paid,” said UK-based cyber-security expert Kevin Beaumont.<\/p>\n “This problem isn’t going to go away,” he added.<\/p>\n He said organisations needed to review their security procedures and ensure that backups were in place – and also that such backups had been recently tested – so that data and systems could be restored in the event of a ransomware infection.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian hospitals struck<\/h2>\n